Barbar Krallığı

Carolingian state
During the Carolingian reign, the core of the feudal structure was established in the Frankish society. As a result of the social stratification that began within the community during the Merovingian period, the peasants who lost their allods became dependents. In the VII-IX centuries, this process became widespread. Towards the beginning of the 8th century, 2 opposing social strata emerged in the Frankish kingdom: large landowners and dependent peasants who did not own land or had small plots of land. These changes in the social structure of the Frankish society are reflected in the politics of Pippin's successor, Mayor Carl Martel. Carl Martel ("The Hammer", 715-741) began his reign by suppressing internal disturbances within the kingdom. Having crushed the feudal lords who rebelled against him in Neustria, and then entered into an agreement with the Arabs and defeated the dukes of Aquitaine and Provence, Charles began to subjugate the German Rhineland tribes - Saxons, Frisians, Germans, and Bavarians. In 732, at the decisive Battle of Platjae, Charles Martel dealt a heavy blow to the Arabs – who had invaded Spain in the early eighth century, invaded southern Gaul in 720, and posed a direct threat to the Frankish kingdom. In the fight against the Arabs, the newly created horse (cavalry) troops of the Franks played a major role. The Battle of Platjae stopped the further movement of the Arabs in Europe, and now a small part of southern Gaul - Septimania - remained in their hands. The development of feudal relations in the Frankish kingdom required a change in the forms of land ownership. Since a large part of the bankrupt free peasants did not have the necessary financial resources to serve in the army, the question of the radical organization of the military forces arose. This is where the social roots of Karl Martell's benefit reform came from. The essence of this reform was that during the Merovingian era, full and unconditional ownership of the land (allod) was widespread, after this reform, the land was transferred to the form of conditional ownership (benefici - beneficium, literally "noble work"). The benefice was granted for life in exchange for certain service, usually cavalry. When the beneficiary died, the benefit was transferred to the original owner or his heir. If the heir of the beneficial owner or the beneficiary himself wanted to use the land in the previous way, the donation had to be restored again. If the required service was not performed or the farm was operating at a loss, the benefit was withdrawn. Over time, the benefice changed from a life estate to a hereditary estate, and during the 9th-10th centuries it acquired the character of a fief (len) - that is, conventional land ownership inherited in exchange for military service. Karl Martell distributed a large number of benefits. The main portion of these shares was at first the lands taken from the rebel magnates, and when these lands were exhausted, he made a partial secularization of the church lands. When carrying out this reform, Karl Martell primarily pursued political goals. By replacing the allod shares with feneficies, which depleted the royal land fund, he wanted to make the large feudal lords dependent on the center; with the help of the benefit system, Karl Martell wanted to create a cavalry force with military power. At that time, cavalry already played a decisive role in wars. Benefisi's reform resulted in a number of social changes: first, it strengthened the position of the emerging small and middle feudal class: these feudal lords formed the basis of the military organization and laid the foundations of future chivalry. The peasants, who previously formed the infantry units of the Frankish army, lost their former military importance and were deprived of their equal status in society. Second, the widespread distribution of benefits strengthened feudal land ownership and peasant dependence. Third, the benefice created a relationship of personal loyalty and guardianship (vassalage) between the grantor and the recipient. Thus, the reform gave rise to the further development of feudal relations in Frankish society. Following the example of the king, other large landowners also carried out this practice, and a hierarchical structure of land ownership was created. But by increasing the military power of the feudal lords and creating hierarchical relations, the benefice reform accelerated the subsequent political disintegration of the Frankish kingdom. Although initially, Karl Martell's reform greatly strengthened the central government. Thus, the beneficiaries strengthened as a result of the reform became the support of the Carolingian dynasty for a while. This class was interested in a strong central government: they needed help in subduing the peasants, breaking their resistance and putting an end to the arbitrariness of the big feudal lords. The son of Karl Martel, Major-Dom Pippin (741-768), an attempt to regulate church-royal relations, which had worsened due to the confiscation of church lands during his father's reign. showed. All church lands distributed as benefices were declared the property of the church and the beneficiaries had to pay tribute to the church. Such land shares are precarious verbo was called regis (precari given by royal order). In this case, the beneficiary still held a military service in favor of the king, and the church could not reclaim the land without the king's permission. The Pope, under pressure from the Langobards, had high hopes for the Frankish kingdom. Therefore, in 751, at a meeting of Frankish nobles in Sassoon, Pip was officially declared king of the Franks. Hilderic III, the last representative of the Mervings, was put into a monastery. In turn, at the call of Pope Stephen II, Pipin forced the Lombard king to hand over the cities of the Roman province held by the Lombards and the lands in the plain of Ravenna to the Pope. In 756, a special property of the Roman Pope - Patrimonio Santa Peters (Paternity of St. Peter) was created on these lands. This was the foundation of the claim of the Roman popes to create a universal Christian monarchy. In these same years, a fake document named "Constantine's Donation" was prepared in the papal office in order to destroy the right of the Roman popes to secular authority. The Carolingian state experienced its highest level during the reign of Charles, son of Pippi the Jacket (768-814). Continuing the aggressive policy of his predecessors, Charles marched into Italy in 774, overthrew the last Lombard king, Desiderius, and annexed the Lombard kingdom to the Frankish state. Charlemagne replaced the defensive line with offensive tactics against the Arabs in Spain. He made the first march here in 778, but he could only go as far as Zaragoza and had to return. The events of this march were reflected in the "Song of Roland". The hero of the epic is Roland, one of Karl's generals. Despite his defeat in the first campaign, Charles intended to march again from the Pyrenees to the south. In 801, he captured Barcelona and created a Spanish marque - a frontier region - in northeastern Spain. Karl waged the longest war in Saxony during the years 772-802. Saxony was located between the Ems and Lower Rhine rivers. The Saxons resisted the Franks for a long time. But as a result of his skillful policy, the Sakon nobles - Edelings moved to his side. After that, the struggle of the free Saxons - Frilings turned against both the Franks and the Saxon lords. After his victory over the Saxons at the Weser in 782, Charles ordered the execution of 4,500 Saxon prisoners. In the same year, he issued the "Capitulary on the Matters of Saxony", according to which the death penalty was provided for anyone who opposed the church and the king. Soon Edeling Widukind, who was at the head of the Saxon resistance, converted to Christianity and laid down his arms. Now the struggle of the Saxons was concentrated in a small area - North-Eastern Saxony. In order to break their resistance, Karl entered into a temporary alliance with the Slavic tribes - Abodris, who were hostile to the Saxons. After the war, Charlemagne moved the Saxons en masse into the interior provinces of the Frankish kingdom, and the Franks into Saxony. Karl's invasions were also directed to the southeast. In 788, he definitively united Bavaria and abolished ducal rule there. On the southeastern coast of the expanding Frankish kingdom, Charlemagne clashed with the Avar Khanate. In 788, the Frankish-Avar wars began. These wars continued until 803. As a result, the Avar state disintegrated and Pannonia fell into the hands of the Slavs. The Frankish state covered a large area. It spread from the middle reaches of the Ebro River and Barcelona to the Elbe River and the Vienna Woods in the east, from Jutland in the north to Central Italy in the south. This area was inhabited by tribes with different levels of development. Charlemagne and his followers believed that the Western Roman Empire had been restored and that the Frankish king was eager to claim the title of emperor. At that time, Pope Leo III was hiding in the palace of the Frankish king, fleeing from the Roman nobles who were hostile to him. Taking advantage of this, Charles marched on Rome with the slogan of defending the pope. Under pressure from Charlemagne, the Pope placed the imperial crown on his head in 800 (in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome). Thus, a new empire arose in the west, and this created a conflict between Charlemagne and Byzantium, since each of the emperors considered himself the successor of the Roman Empire. For several decades, the Frankish Empire became the most powerful state in Western Europe. The residence of the emperor was Aachen. The new borders of the empire were strengthened by border provinces - marks. Breton was established in the Northwest, Spanish in the South, and in Italy the Frankish Empire was separated from the Byzantine possessions with semi-dependent duchies such as Spoleto and Benevento . There were continuous wars on the borders with the Slavic tribes (Obodri, Lutych, Sorbian, Czech, Moravian, Slovene, Croat) spread from the Baltic to the Adriatic. Border zones were created here: Denmark in Schleswig, Saxon against the Baltic Slavs border , Sorb from the Elbe to the Danube border , from the middle course of the Danube to Pannonia or the East brand (the core of future Austria). Northern Italy was separated from Byzantium by the Friulian marque. By the beginning of the 9th century, the authority of the Carolingian Empire was high in the international world: the kings of Scotland and Austria sought the patronage of Charles. In 812, he recognized the imperial title of Charles the Byzantine emperor.